Chapter 3: Goblins

Goblins.

Notorious as cockroaches, they are distributed across almost every plane that can be associated with the element of "Western fantasy."

These short-statured creatures are inherently greedy and despicable. If not for the fact that their race's average intelligence sits at the very bottom of sentient beings, one might even add the adjectives "cunning" and "deceptive" to their description.

Their species' alignment, which leans heavily toward "evil," combined with the low productivity resulting from their backward intelligence, means their survival behaviors are almost always linked to "plundering" and "theft."

Furthermore, the absence of females in their race forces them to rely on the abduction of females from other sentient species, as well as some unknown, bizarre method of reproduction.

This has earned them, to a certain extent, a worse reputation in the multiverse than the demons of the Abyss or the devils of the Hells.

The individual combat power of a goblin is extremely weak; an ordinary farm woman holding a pitchfork could easily finish off an unequipped, "vanilla" goblin.

But as Hunter Mage described just moments ago

These little things are like the stray dogs seen everywhere in town.

A single one doesn't amount to much, but once they gather—once their numbers reach double or even triple digits—the goblins' courage and the destructive power they can unleash increase exponentially.

Raiding caravans, attacking villages...

Especially when their colony grows to a certain size, elite individuals with leadership capabilities naturally emerge.

In the long run, if left to develop, they could even grow into a kingdom-level disaster.

At present, the goblin tribe being tracked by the "Stinky Fish and Rotten Shrimp" squad may not have reached the scale of raiding towns.

But clearly, they already possess the ability to actively attack humans.

The proof of this lies in the gnome—that humorous fellow who loved telling ill-timed cold jokes—whose corpse is now gradually growing cold on the ground.

"ROAR!!!"

An inhuman roar erupted suddenly in the forest.

The half-orc Gagul jumped up like a startled jungle beast, gripping his blood-stained two-handed axe tightly with both hands.

The sudden attack and the death of his squadmate seemed to stir some ancestral glory within this half-breed with thin orcish blood.

His vaguely sharpening canines and the visibly swelling, reddened muscles all over his body indicated that this half-orc was entering a combat state.

Hunter Mage was the fastest in the entire Stinky Fish and Rotten Shrimp squad.

Almost the instant that dark wooden club emerged from behind Ergi’s head, he had reacted.

While shouting a warning, he slung his longbow over his back and, using both hands and feet, nimbly climbed the towering shagbark hickory tree behind him.

His lean figure vanished into the dense canopy in the blink of an eye.

Though he hated to admit it, Xia Nan was undoubtedly the slowest to respond in the entire squad.

The thirty-plus years before his transmigration were spent sitting from classroom to office; he hadn't even killed a chicken.

In this life, he was nothing more than a simple, honest farmer who faced the yellow earth and turned his back to the sky.

One second he was considering how to pry more information about this world out of Ergi, and the next, the man had his head smashed in by a wooden club right in front of him, brains and all.

Xia Nan’s mind went blank. Although instinct caused him to grab the one-handed sword at his knee, his body stood frozen in place, as if trapped in a state of paralysis.

Until...

*Whoosh!*

A lock of hair fluttered as a violent gust of wind grazed his cheek, leaving a stinging sensation.

A wooden arrow pierced through the shadows of the forest, flying out from the canopy above.

"Ah!"

A sharp, pained cry rang out from behind him.

Xia Nan jolted, instantly snapping back to reality.

The world, which had seemed to be on mute, suddenly became vivid once again.

There was no time to thank Mage for the helping hand from above; he turned around rapidly.

His gaze swept across, his pupils shrinking!

There were two short figures crouching low.

Their dark green, rough skin was covered in scars, and their scarlet eyes were filled with cunning and malice. They wore nothing but a dirty, brown rag around their lower bodies, and their slender limbs showed the faint, bulging contours of muscle beneath.

Without him noticing, two goblins had quietly crept up behind him!

If not for Mage’s warning, he likely would have met the same fate as Ergi the gnome.

A lingering fear gripped Xia Nan’s heart, and he subconsciously tightened his grip on the rope-wrapped sword hilt.

"Wacha!"

Their stealth exposed, one of the goblins had its foot pinned firmly to the ground by the wooden arrow from above.

These naturally cowardly monsters seemed to lose the courage to continue their attack in that instant.

It merely held its wooden club high in a threatening gesture toward the young human before it.

The pitch-black club reflected a dangerous orange-red hue from the campfire.

Xia Nan looked at the rusty iron nail embedded in the surface of the club, and his mind flashed back to the miserable scene of Ergi’s skull shattering.

Like some kind of stress response, driven by the deep-seated fear in his heart, he slammed his right foot forward while bending his sword-wielding right arm to build momentum.

*Thud!*

His sole sank instantly into the soft, muddy ground.

It was as if his feet were roots growing downward to draw nutrients from the earth.

An inexplicable power erupted from the soles of his feet, surging through his bones and muscles, gathering the strength of his entire body.

Finally, it poured out with the blade.

[Spinning Slash]

*Shhh-!*

Accompanied by a shrill sound of tearing air, the lingering mist churned violently.

A sharp, silvery arc of beautiful curvature flashed fleetingly before Xia Nan.

Time and space seemed to stagnate in this moment.

The meticulously maintained blade, combined with techniques practiced hundreds of thousands of times, made the goblins' skin, muscle, and bone as fragile and vulnerable as sandpaper.

"Proficiency +1"

A string of translucent text flashed before his eyes.

Xia Nan felt a brief moment of resistance in his hand, and the one-handed sword, just as it had for countless nights in the past, had completed a diagonal upward slash from left to right.

Blood splattered.

Falling onto the mud were the goblin’s severed palm, half a skull, foul-smelling entrails, and their dirty, scalding blood.

Those two insidious monsters that had attempted a sneak attack were, with a single sword strike, easily cleaved in two, just like the countless stalks of rice on the field ridges of the past.

The forest seemed to fall into a deathly silence at this moment.

High above in the canopy, Mage subconsciously released the longbow he had already drawn to its limit.

He stared at the two mangled corpses on the meadow, his eyes darting over to Xia Nan, who was slowly exhaling and sheathing his sword.

His Adam's apple bobbed twice, his face filled with uncontrollable astonishment.

"This... this is a rookie!?"